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CIENA'S COREDIRECTOR SCALABLE TO 3,072 PORTS AND HIGHER

CIENA Extends Lead In Intelligent Optical Switching With CoreDirector's Scalability to Meet High-Growth Network Demands

Ciena Corporation, (NASDAQ: CIEN), a global provider of intelligent optical networking systems and software, today announced expanded capabilities for its MultiWave CoreDirector™ intelligent optical core switch. Ciena initially plans to leverage the scalability and industry-leading density of its CoreDirector platform to enable service providers to in-service upgrade their CoreDirector systems to multi-bay configurations with up to 3,072 OC-48/STM-16 equivalent optical ports per switch. Ciena believes that CoreDirector offers carriers the most capacity and functionality in the smallest footprint as the only optical switch with 256 ports (640Gbps bi-directional switching capacity) in a single bay, plus a full range of signal switching granularity spanning from entire wavelengths down to STS-1.

"CoreDirector has achieved an early lead in the market for optical switch equipment based on the product's STS-1 grooming capability, port density, and intelligent networking software functionality," said David Krozier, senior analyst with RHK, a telecommunications research firm. "With CoreDirector, Ciena captured more than 50 percent of the North American optical switch market in 2000."

Ciena's development plans call for a phased approach to scaling CoreDirector. The initial phases are planned to enable CoreDirector to scale in-service to 1,536- and 3,072-port configurations while continuing to support all intelligent networking applications for both SONET and SDH (Ultrabroadband DCS, multi-wavelength rings, dynamic mesh and intelligent optical networking). Additional developments to scale CoreDirector beyond 7.68 terabits of switching capacity also are underway. As with other Ciena products, the timeframes for each expansion phase will largely be driven by customer need.

Development plans to expand CoreDirector also include Ciena's recently announced integration of "all optimal" switching capabilities into the CoreDirector platform, providing customers the benefits of both OO and OEO switching functionally integrated into one intelligent system. The company is designing its new, all-optical switch fabric as a modular enhancement to CoreDirector to maximize its scalability, flexibility, networking intelligence, and efficiency by allowing service providers to fine-tune the combination of OO and OEO switching based on varying traffic characteristics and application requirements across their networks.

CoreDirector provides the high-bandwidth switching, protection and provisioning capabilities for automated, next-generation optical networking and service development. With built-in networking intelligence, CoreDirector uses software- and silicon-driven technologies to enable service providers to rapidly create and deliver differentiable, dynamic new optical services at any time, any size and any priority. With the combination of switching capacity to 7.68Tbps and beyond, scalability to OC-768/STM-256, switching granularity from full wavelengths to STS-1, and flexible virtual ring and mesh protection software, CoreDirector is designed to enable carriers to deliver optical services such as OC-n/STM-n, wavelength and fractional wavelength services, and rate-adaptive gigabit Ethernet services while eliminating the need for additional SONET/SDH add/drop multiplexers, digital cross-connects, and optical cross-connects.

A recent economic study shows that CoreDirector creates an estimated net present value enhancement (including capital and operational cost savings and revenue enhancements) that could be more than three times the initial capital investment in the first year alone relative to legacy networking solutions.*

"We're confident that the scalability of CoreDirector, together with all the economic and operational benefits it adds to the network, will keep Ciena several steps ahead of the rest of the market," said Gary Smith, president and chief executive officer of Ciena. "Most importantly, CoreDirector brings strategic value to our service-provider customers and their end users by leveraging the intelligence in the network to deliver highly customized, next-generation service offerings."

CoreDirector and other products from Ciena's LightWorks™ family of intelligent optical networking solutions will be on display at SuperComm 2001 in Atlanta, June 5-7.

* Source: McKinsey & Company Economic Value Analysis Model.